Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Department Website:
https://www.haverford.edu/pjhr

The Interdisciplinary Concentration in Peace, Justice and Human Rights offers students the opportunity to study the history, philosophy and critiques of the rights tradition, examine themes of human rights and justice in their local and international contexts, and apply philosophical, social scientific, and ethical reasoning to real-world problems.

The program helps students gain insight not only into a wide range of issues affecting justice and peace but also helps students develop an aptitude for communicating and collaborating with peers—and audiences in the wider world—whose disciplinary language, values, and methodological concerns may differ from their own.

The concentration is open to students in any major who wish to focus on topics such as: individual and state responsibility/accountability; recovery from conflict, mass violence, and longstanding oppression (reconciliation, restorative and retributive justice approaches, reparations, etc); justice, health, climate change, and the environment; transformative justice; mutual aid; theories and practices of decolonization; forgiveness and its refusal; theories and practices of activism, organizing, and social change; identifying and overcoming racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, poverty, oppression, and other modes of exclusion and violence; anarchism; war, conflict, peace-keeping and peace-making; just war theory; international law and human rights; animal ethics; globalization and global governance (sovereignty, trade and capital, technology, economic institutions, multilateral organizations, international courts, the media, immigration); worldbuilding; space and the built environment (social justice and the building of urban spaces, policing urban areas, abolition, urban poor); institutional and non-institutional approaches to recovery and change; uses and critiques of the rights tradition; and so on—any theme related to justice. These fields are not intended as tracks or limitations. The list of topics will be as long as the creativity of students and faculty will allow.

 

Learning Goals

Students who complete the Interdisciplinary Concentration in Peace, Justice and Human Rights will possess:

  • knowledge of the various schools of thought and modes of practice of peace, justice and human rights.
  • familiarity with diverse approaches to conflict and peace.
  • fluency with various schools of ethical and legal thought.
  • understanding of the complexity of international and domestic issues of peace, justice and human rights.
  • confidence in the ability to understand and analyze philosophical and practical problems, and come up with creative solutions to these problems.
  • good oral and written communication skills, gained through discussion of ideas, the practice of writing, and the practices of speaking and teaching, commenting on the work of peers, and revision of work over time.
  • a working sense of the ways in which theory and practice are different but inseparable.
  • ability to formulate and advance original arguments about issues of peace, justice and human rights.
  • sensitivity to the different factors affecting reception of arguments about divisive or emergent issues.
  • experience with field methods, archival research, practical internships or other work or study outside of the traditional classroom setting.
  • insight into what interdisciplinary study entails and how it complements or augments work within the disciplines, including a sense of the differing methodological approaches: historical/archival, philosophical, legal, ethnographic, institutional, textual.
  • aptitude for communicating and collaborating with peers—and audiences in the wider world—whose disciplinary language, values and methodological concerns differ.
  • humility with regard to the complexity of conflict and its resolution.

Haverford’s Institutional Learning Goals are available on the President’s website, at http://hav.to/learninggoals.

Concentration Requirements

The concentration combines three core courses with three elective courses focused on a particular theoretical problem, geographical region, or comparative study. Ideally, students meet with the director in the spring of their sophomore year to work out a plan for the concentration.

Core Courses

We require all concentrators to take three core courses:

Alternate courses may on occasion fulfill a core requirement.

 

Electives

We require students to take three additional elective courses for the concentration.There is no set list of courses, which “count” as electives; instead, we ask students to design a thoughtful focus for their work, and choose courses in consultation with the concentration director, working out a plan that focuses the concentration regionally, conceptually, or around a particular substantive problem. A course does not have to have “peace” or “justice” in its title or content to count toward the concentration. The aim is to articulate a focus that helps each student pursue their interests in PJHR.

The concentration may overlap with students’ majors by one or two courses—any course could potentially count toward two programs. (For instance, for political science majors with a concentration in PJHR and a focus on questions of sovereignty, POLS H266 could fill requirements in both political science and PJHR.) Such overlap is a possibility, not a requirement. Each student works out a plan of study appropriate to their focus with the concentration director. No more than two of the six credits for the concentration may come from institutions outside of the Bi-Co, and all credits from outside of the Bi-Co should be proposed to the director for approval.

Senior Project

All PJHR seniors will take a capstone course in the fall of their senior year that will help concentrators integrate scholarship, theory, library and field research, and policy perspectives, and communicate about the work they are doing in their majors with students from other disciplines. The capstone incorporates discussion, research assignments, collaboration, a student-organized conference, and a dossier of student work in the concentration. Note: Work for the thesis in each student’s major may overlap with work for the concentration but need not.

Senior Project Learning Goals

The aim of the capstone is to consolidate student experience of a program that integrates scholarship, theory, policy perspectives, and library, field and lab research. Students are encouraged to look critically at their own social justice philosophies and disciplinary methods, and reflect on how practice and theory are, at the same time, challenges to each other and yet not strictly separable. The capstone is also a site at which collaborative work across the disciplines may help students begin to envision innovative new solutions to entrenched problems. At the very least, students will learn how to communicate meaningfully about their work to other students who may not share disciplinary methodologies or assumptions. The goal is for students to connect this form of communication with a kind of ethical leadership and/or engagement that relies as much on productive listening as it does on speech or action.

To that end, during the course of the seminar, students engage in conversation around a theme and shared readings across disciplinary differences; engage in the work of teaching each other how the methodologies of their different disciplines formulate and answer important questions (through the presentation of articles in their field and of their own work); propose a research paper or collaborative project related to the work of their major, and work on drafting a version of it suitable for an interdisciplinary audience; collaborate on planning an end-of-semester conference showcasing their work; present their work-in-progress at the conference; and engage other students’ work in ways both formal (serving as discussants on other students’ papers) and informal (responding to presentations and posing or answering questions about them).

Concentrations & Interdisciplinary Minors

The PJHR concentration contributes to many programs on campus, including the following two minors:

  • Environmental Studies: The Environmental Studies Minor aims to cultivate in students the capacity to identify and confront key environmental issues through a blend of multiple disciplines, encompassing historical, cultural, economic, political, scientific and ethical modes of inquiry.
  • Health Studies: The goal of the Health Studies Minor is to give greater context to the issues facing health professionals on local, national, and global scales. The structure of this program is intentionally multidisciplinary, bringing scientists together with social science and humanities professors to guide students through the political, cultural and ethical questions that relate to health issues worldwide.

Internship or Research Experience

The program encourages students to take advantage of the many opportunities for enriching their academic work through independent research and/or internships, in both domestic and international settings. This will help students face the challenges of integrating data and theory into original analyses. Possibilities include traditional social science fieldwork, archival research in the humanities, guided research in the sciences, advanced work in applied ethics backed by research, and so on. Haverford students may seek support through Haverford’s Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC), from the John B. Hurford ‘60 Center for the Arts and Humanities, or the Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center (KINSC).

Examples of recent CPGC-funded projects include: an internship with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; a humanitarian relief project in Panabaj, Guatemala following civil war and a devastating mudslide; research into the struggles of Philadelphia refugees from conflict zones; a summer internship at a school for street children in Indonesia; internships at Voice of Witness in San Francisco; and participation in the World Social Forum in Venezuela.

Faculty

Below are the core Peace, Justice, and Human Rights faculty. Many other faculty contribute courses to the program; see the Courses section for a full listing.

Core Faculty

Shannon Mudd
Director of Microfinance, Impact Investing, and Social Entrepreneurial Programs; Assistant Professor of Economics

Prea Persaud Khanna
Visiting Instructor of Peace, Justice and Human Rights

Joshua Ramey
Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Jill Stauffer
Associate Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights; ; Director of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights

Courses

Africana Studies Courses

AFST H230  RELIGION AND BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE  (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will examine the background for and the key events, figures, philosophies, tactics, and consequences of the modern black freedom struggle in United States. The period from 1955-1965 will receive special attention, but the roots of the freedom struggle and the effect on recent American political, social, and cultural history will also be considered.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Anthropology Courses

ANTH H222  HUMAN RIGHTS: CULTURE, LANGUAGE, AND POWER  (1.0 Credit)

Zeynep Sertbulut

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course offers an overview of the human rights system, looking at its basic elements and studying how it works. At the heart of this course is the question of “culture” and its relation to human rights. We will focus on the tensions and translations between human rights and culture and between global ideas and practices and local ones. The goal of the course is developing an understanding of human rights in practice and theorizing the intersections between social fields thought of as global and local. Crosslisted: Anthropology; Peace, Justice and Human Rights Prerequisite(s): Intro to Anthropology OR Intro to PJHR

ANTH H239  VISIONS OF JUSTICE: INTERSECTIONALITY AND LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ASIAN CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

Emily Hong

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course aims to deepen understandings of Asian struggles for justice and representation through independent films by Asian (including diaspora) directors. We will analyze films that offer a window into legal and social movement struggles for gender justice, self-determination, and environmental justice. Crosslisted: Visual Studies; Anthropology; East Asian Languages & Cultures; Peace, Justice and Human Rights

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Computer Science Courses

CMSC H265  CRITICAL STUDY OF DATA AND ALGORITHMS  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This class focuses on the social impact of data and algorithms. Students will be introduced to 1) what are data and algorithms, 2) how data and algorithms intersect with problems of peace, justice, and human rights, especially in terms of social inequality, 3) how to critically assess and challenge data and algorithms, and 4) the role of individual and collective action in responding to relevant problems. No prior experience with programming, data, or algorithms required. Crosslisted: CMSC, PEAC Lottery Preference: PJHR concentrators

Comparative Literature Courses

COML H244  OUR AMERICAS: IMAGINING THE HEMISPHERE  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course focuses on theorists of culture and society across the Americas, as well as major genres of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, considering interventions from Caribbean, Latin American, and North American figures. Reading novels, memoir, travel writing and poetry, we’ll theorize the structures of hemispheric life: how did race and the color line, slavery and the plantation, settler colonialism, labor and migration, travel and transit, and war and imperialism create a shared hemispheric history? Crosslisted: PEAC,COML Pre-requisite(s): One course involving literary analysis.

COML H257  ANTIGONE’S ECHOES: ACTIVISM AND THE LAW FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO TODAY  (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Where should the law come from, the individual or the state? How can you protest an unjust system, and how can an ancient story help you do it? Who owns a “Classic”? These are just a few questions that Sophocles’ Antigone has raised for philosophers and playwrights from the Enlightenment to today. We'll read several versions of the Antigone myth and explore this character’s enduring relevance to theories of gender, performance, world literature, and politics. Crosslisted: COML,PEAC.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

COML H322  POLITICS OF MEMORY IN LATIN AMERICA  (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An exploration of the dynamics of memory, narration, censorship and oblivion after a period of state violence either under a dictatorship or an official democracy. This course analyses and compares literary genres (testimonies, diaries, poetry and fiction), visual archives, documentary films, practices and projects of memory (Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Museo de la Memoria in Chile, Museo Casa de la Memoria Indómita in Mexico, “sitios de memoria” and digital resources). Students will be able to compare debates, outcomes and current controversies of production of memory in Chile after the coup and dictatorship of Pinochet, and in Mexico after the repression of the student movement of ‘68 and the guerrilla movement. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Comparative Literature, PJHR

Classical Studies Courses

CSTS H257  ANTIGONE’S ECHOES: ACTIVISM AND THE LAW FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO TODAY  (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Where should the law come from, the individual or the state? How can you protest an unjust system, and how can an ancient story help you do it? Who owns a “Classic”? These are just a few questions that Sophocles’ Antigone has raised for philosophers and playwrights from the Enlightenment to today. We'll read several versions of the Antigone myth and explore this character’s enduring relevance to theories of gender, performance, world literature, and politics. Crosslisted: COML,PEAC.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses

EALC H239  VISIONS OF JUSTICE: INTERSECTIONALITY AND LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ASIAN CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

Emily Hong

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course aims to deepen understandings of Asian struggles for justice and representation through independent films by Asian (including diaspora) directors. We will analyze films that offer a window into legal and social movement struggles for gender justice, self-determination, and environmental justice. Crosslisted: Visual Studies; Anthropology; East Asian Languages & Cultures; Peace, Justice and Human Rights

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Economics Courses

ECON H206  WHY LOW-INCOME FAMILIES AND SMALL BUSINESS LACK ACCESS AND HOW TO MAKE IT BETTER.  (1.0 Credit)

Shannon Mudd

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Households of low to moderate income struggle in multiple ways. To what extent can access to appropriate financial tools help alleviate some of their stress? While microcredit, the provision of small loans to people in poverty, is typically associated with developing countries, issues of access to appropriate financial products are everywhere. This course focuses on Access to Finance in the US and will involve direct engagement with Philadelphia organizations dealing with the issue that finance might address - and both the potential and actual problems that arise within households, small business and the industries that are in the ecosystem supporting them. We will read books, articles and studies to ground us in different understandings of poverty and households' financial needs, whether theoretical, empirical and/or directly observed. And, we will examine how the financial sector and adjacent industries are providing products and services to serve those households and small businesses, not always in helpful ways. We will look at eco-systems, providers, regulators and financial literacy. A major portion of the class will be project-based and will have you take a deep dive into one of the Philly organizations involved in access to finance to better understand what they do, how they are doing it and how they are making strategic decisions. We will develop basic analytical skills and deploy useful frameworks to better understand the operations of each organization. And, we will assess how their success is affected both by the capabilities they bring and the environment in which they are working. This class will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. Come join Professor Mudd in the city and learn together the issues and current local efforts to deal with them. Prerequisites: Priority in registration will be given to students participating in the Tri-Co Philly Program (https://www.haverford.edu/philly-program) and PJHR concentrators. Remaining seats are available to other Tri-Co students, by lottery, if demand exceeds remaining spaces in the course. If you are interested in the program, you must fill out the application, which is due on Friday, Nov. 1 by 11:59 pm. This program includes registering for two of three of the program’s courses, which include this course OR A City of Homes: Housing Issues in Philadelphia (ENGL B260) OR Philadelphia Music City (MUSI 005C). Those not participating in the Philly program do not need to complete the application and can simply pre-register for the class

ECON H243  DEBT, JUSTICE, AND SOVEREIGNTY  (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Global indebtedness has reached astronomical and obscene proportions, and vast numbers of human beings are effectively enslaved to debt. This course examines the history of debt politics and the role of credit and debt in struggles for justice and sovereignty, in both pre-capitalist and capitalist societies. Particular focus will be placed on contemporary debates in the theory of money, and on the ambiguous and fraught relations between money and credit. Special consideration will be given to arguments for debt resistance politics as a strategy of emancipation and democratization in the context of neoliberal ideology, extreme wealth inequality, and environmental destruction, since these forces are arguably both the effects and causes of power relations enabling some to maintain perpetual creditworthiness while most have their futures foreclosed by the requirement that they pay their debts. Crosslisted: PEAC,ECON Prerequisite(s): one PEAC course or consent of instructor

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ECON H298  IMPACT INVESTING  (1.0 Credit)

Shannon Mudd

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Impact investing is investing to generate both a financial return and a positive social benefit. It supports firms seeking to address social, environmental and /or governance problems (ESG) in a sustainable way often within market activity. The focus of this course is to not only gain an understanding of the theory and practice of impact investing across its many components, but also to gain practical experience by assessing a particular set of potential impact investments, making formal presentations of findings to an investment committee leading to a recommendation for investment to a partnering foundation. Crosslisted: Economics, Independent College Programs, PJHR Prerequisite(s): ECON 104 or 105 or 106

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Education Courses

EDUC B275  EMERGENT MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS IN U.S. SCHOOLS  (1.0 Credit)

Kelly Zuckerman

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course, offered as both an elective as well as a course required for students pursuing secondary teaching certification in Pennsylvania through the Bi-Co Education Program, operates from a heteroglossic and culturally and linguistically sustaining stance that has four intersecting aims. First, the course seeks to support students in a critical self-examination of the ways that language has shaped their lives and learning, particularly in the context of racism, linguicism, ethno- and euro-centrism, marginalization and austerity in schools and society. Second, students investigate the ways that both historical and contemporary educational policy concerning the education of EMLLs in the United States has operated from a monoglossic orientation that has limited programmatic and pedagogical options within the classroom to those that fail to address the lived realities and needs of this growing population of students. Third, students collaboratively research and present their findings on heteroglossic classroom language practices that, in contrast to those above, respect and leverage students’ community cultural wealth and full linguistic repertoires. Fourth, students, drawing upon these findings as well as research on multiple language and literacy acquisition, hone their skills as curriculum designers and pedagogues, working to address EMLLs’ diverse strengths and needs in mainstream classrooms and other educational settings. All four aims are bolstered by weekly fieldwork opportunities to learn with and from EMLLs and their educators in the Philadelphia area. Lottery Preference(s): 1. EDUC majors and Certification students; 2. EDUC minors; 3. then by seniority

(Offered: Fall 2025)

EDUC H275  EMERGENT MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS IN U.S. SCHOOLS  (1.0 Credit)

Kelly Zuckerman

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course, offered as both an elective as well as a course required for students pursuing secondary teaching certification in Pennsylvania through the Bi-Co Education Program, operates from a heteroglossic and culturally and linguistically sustaining stance that has four intersecting aims. First, the course seeks to support students in a critical self-examination of the ways that language has shaped their lives and learning, particularly in the context of racism, linguicism, ethno- and euro-centrism, marginalization and austerity in schools and society. Second, students investigate the ways that both historical and contemporary educational policy concerning the education of EMLLs in the United States has operated from a monoglossic orientation that has limited programmatic and pedagogical options within the classroom to those that fail to address the lived realities and needs of this growing population of students. Third, students collaboratively research and present their findings on heteroglossic classroom language practices that, in contrast to those above, respect and leverage students’ community cultural wealth and full linguistic repertoires. Fourth, students, drawing upon these findings as well as research on multiple language and literacy acquisition, hone their skills as curriculum designers and pedagogues, working to address EMLLs’ diverse strengths and needs in mainstream classrooms and other educational settings. All four aims are bolstered by weekly fieldwork opportunities to learn with and from EMLLs and their educators in the Philadelphia area. Lottery Preference(s): 1. EDUC majors and Certification students; 2. EDUC minors; 3. then by seniority

(Offered: Fall 2025)

English Courses

ENGL H207  CRUISING HOME: QUEER KINSHIP IN THEORY AND PRACTICE  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities

In this course, we will explore historical and contemporary questions of kinship as they intersect with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, and queer practices of building home, community, and social movements. Considering kinship as both site of violence and liberation, our texts will include political theory; literary texts—including novels, plays, poetry, and memoirs; and popular and experimental films and videos. Crosslisted: Peace, Justice, and Human Rights; English

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL H230  POETICS OF ABOLITION  (1.0 Credit)

Lindsay Reckson

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course explores the role of poetry and other forms of creative expression in the history of prison abolition and related social justice movements. Focusing on incarcerated writers and artists who theorize life worlds in and beyond racial capitalism and the carceral state, the course approaches art-making as a practice of imagining abolitionist futures. Pre-requisite(s): First year writing seminar Lottery Preference: English majors and PJHR concentrators.

ENGL H286  LITERATURE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS  (1.0 Credit)

Jeremy Gallion

Division: Humanities

We will examine memoirs, essays, and poetry by American writer/activists whose works illuminate the formation of -- and tensions between -- civil rights struggles, peace movements, feminist organizing, and LGBT movements. Readings include Baldwin, Rukeyser, King, Rich, Malcolm X, Lorde, Moraga and Stringfellow.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ENGL H309  AGAINST DEATH: OPPOSING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE  (1.0 Credit)

Lindsay Reckson

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

Advanced inquiry into creative and critical responses to the death penalty in the United States from the 1830s to the 1970s. Our aim is to explore the relationship between art and social protest, and to examine how capital punishment has manifested U.S. histories of race, class, gender, religion, and sexuality. Readings in primary historical materials, literary and cultural analysis, and critical theory. Pre-requisite(s): Freshman writing, plus one 200-level ENG course; or freshman writing plus PEAC101 or PEAC201. Crosslisted: ENGL and PEAC

Gender and Sexuality Studies Courses

GSST H316  WOMEN AND THE ARMED STRUGGLE IN LATIN AMERICA  (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

An examination of socialist armed struggles in 1970s, women’s rights and feminist movements in Latin America. A comparative study of literary texts, testimonials and documentary films addresses theoretical issues such as Marxism, global feminism, hegemony and feminisms produced in the periphery. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Gen/Sex, and PJHR Prerequisite(s): One 200-level, preferred 300- level course, or instructor consent

History Courses

HIST H336  HUMAN RIGHTS IN HISTORY: THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This class will trace the historical evolution of the concept of rights in early modern Europe. We will explore the origins of notions of rights and consider whether rights were invented, as some historians claim—and if so, when. We will analyze how ideas about rights intersected with the histories of constitutionalism, colonialism, revolution, and liberalism. Additionally, we will examine competing theories of rights to understand which rights historical actors claimed, and whose rights they were. Crosslisted: HIST, PEAC. Pre-requisite(s): One prior course in history.

Independent College Programs Courses

ICPR H295  QUAKERS, WAR, AND SLAVERY, 1646-1877  (1.0 Credit)

David Harrington Watt

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

In the 1640s and 50s, many Quakers believed that Christians should fight in wars; none of them (as far as we know) believed that Christians ought not own slaves. By 1723, most Quakers had renounced war; a good many of them had begun to assert that owning slaves was contrary to the will of God. Students in this course will try to determine how—and also why—Quakers changed their minds about war and slavery. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs; Peace, Justice and Human Rights; Religion Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing

ICPR H298  IMPACT INVESTING  (1.0 Credit)

Shannon Mudd

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Impact investing is investing to generate both a financial return and a positive social benefit. It supports firms seeking to address social, environmental and /or governance problems (ESG) in a sustainable way often within market activity. The focus of this course is to not only gain an understanding of the theory and practice of impact investing across its many components, but also to gain practical experience by assessing a particular set of potential impact investments, making formal presentations of findings to an investment committee leading to a recommendation for investment to a partnering foundation. Crosslisted: Economics, Independent College Programs, PJHR Prerequisite(s): ECON 104 or 105 or 106

(Offered: Fall 2025)

ICPR H301  DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND TRANSNATIONAL INJUSTICES  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Justice; Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

What are the worldwide obstacles to peace and justice? How can we surmount them? This course examines theories of some of the leading obstacles to peace and justice worldwide, and of what global citizens can do about them. The three obstacles we consider are colonialism and its legacies, whether we live in a global racial order, and whether the global economic order harms the poor and does them a kind of violence. The two solutions we will consider are the project of economic and social development, and the practice of human rights. The course aims, first, to give students some of the knowledge they will need to address these problems and be effective global citizens. Second, to understand some of the major forces that shape the present world order. Third and finally, to hone the skills in analysis, theory-building, and arguing that are highly valued in legal and political advocacy, in public life and the professions, and in graduate school. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Political Science

ICPR H319  HUMAN RIGHTS IN PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA–IN NATIONAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXT  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course considers human rights as moral aspirations and as interdependent experiences created through civil law, drawing on student internships with social sector organizations in Philadelphia and throughout the United States, to interrogate the relationship between social issues and policy structures. Prerequisite(s): An internship through the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship. Exceptions may be made for students involved in other forms of sustained community engagement and/or activism.

Music Courses

MUSC H119  ECOMUSICOLOGY & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE  (1.0 Credit)

Katelen Brown

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course examines the intersections of music, sound, and the environment, especially focusing on environmental justice issues. Throughout the class, we will explore alternative conceptions of the natural world, including the misnomer of ‘pristine’ wilderness as idealized nature, conflicting engagements with various political ecologies, and the intersections of music, sound, identity, coloniality, and nature. A critical aspect of this course is its investment in learning about activist research practices, which will be discussed via ethnographic studies, guest lecturers, multi-media presentations, and documentaries. Subtopics for this course include queer ecologies, sound studies, post-humanism, cultural sustainability, soundscapes, climate justice, musical activism, and more.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Peace, Justice and Human Rights Courses

PEAC H101  INTRO TO PEACE, JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS  (1.0 Credit)

Jill Stauffer

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

Introduction to the study of peace, justice and human rights, surveying philosophies of rights and justice; approaches to (and reasons for) peace, war, and nonviolence; clashes between human rights and conflict resolution; why study of human rights is necessarily interdisciplinary.

(Offered: Fall 2025, Spring 2026)

PEAC H105  GLOBAL SOLIDARITY AND LOCAL ACTIONS: INTERDEPENDENCE, INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING, SOCIAL CHANGE  (0.5 Credit)

Emily Drummond, Janice Lion, Theresa Tensuan

Division: Social Science

This course considers a civics of interdependence. We have a role to play, but who are “we,” what role is that, and what ideas, methods, and skills might help us take action for more just, inclusive, sustainable communities? We take up this analytical challenge and the action-oriented disposition it suggests, through consideration of key concepts in local-global civic inquiry and action - through the lens of the Philadelphia region and broader national and international partnerships. Pre-requisite(s): Students must be selected for a summer CPGC Fellowship.

PEAC H116  ETHICAL STRUGGLES IN CATASTROPHIC TIMES: QUAKERS’ RESPONSES TO THE HOLOCAUST  (1.0 Credit)

David Harrington Watt

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

In the 1930s and 1940s, Quakers engaged in a number of remarkable—and controversial—activities that were intended to provide assistance to people who were being persecuted by the Nazis. Those actions were criticized by some US citizens (who thought that Quakers were giving unwitting aid to the Nazis) and also derided by Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels (who thought that Quakers were demonstrating a complete lack of awareness about how the world really works.) Nevertheless, Quakers’ actions did end up saving some lives. Students in this course will examine what Quakers accomplished—and failed to accomplish—in the 1930s and 1940s. The course is not designed as a venue in which to decide, once and for all, which of the Quakers’ actions were wise and which were foolish. The course is meant, rather, to offer students an opportunity to reflect on the ethical questions with which Quakers wrestled and an invitation to compare those questions with the ones they face themselves. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs; Religion; Peace, Justice and Human Rights

(Offered: Spring 2026)

PEAC H201  APPLIED ETHICS OF PEACE, JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS  (1.0 Credit)

Prea Persaud Khanna

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course surveys major legal and ethical theories with a view to helping students understand arguments about peace, justice and human rights and formulate their own creative approaches to ethical problems. Theories will be applied to concrete problems of justice. No prerequisites.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

PEAC H206  WHY LOW-INCOME FAMILIES AND SMALL BUSINESS LACK ACCESS AND HOW TO MAKE IT BETTER.  (1.0 Credit)

Shannon Mudd

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Households of low to moderate income struggle in multiple ways. To what extent can access to appropriate financial tools help alleviate some of their stress? While microcredit, the provision of small loans to people in poverty, is typically associated with developing countries, issues of access to appropriate financial products are everywhere. This course focuses on Access to Finance in the US and will involve direct engagement with Philadelphia organizations dealing with the issue that finance might address - and both the potential and actual problems that arise within households, small business and the industries that are in the ecosystem supporting them. We will read books, articles and studies to ground us in different understandings of poverty and households' financial needs, whether theoretical, empirical and/or directly observed. And, we will examine how the financial sector and adjacent industries are providing products and services to serve those households and small businesses, not always in helpful ways. We will look at eco-systems, providers, regulators and financial literacy. A major portion of the class will be project-based and will have you take a deep dive into one of the Philly organizations involved in access to finance to better understand what they do, how they are doing it and how they are making strategic decisions. We will develop basic analytical skills and deploy useful frameworks to better understand the operations of each organization. And, we will assess how their success is affected both by the capabilities they bring and the environment in which they are working. This class will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. Come join Professor Mudd in the city and learn together the issues and current local efforts to deal with them. Prerequisites: Priority in registration will be given to students participating in the Tri-Co Philly Program (https://www.haverford.edu/philly-program) and PJHR concentrators. Remaining seats are available to other Tri-Co students, by lottery, if demand exceeds remaining spaces in the course. If you are interested in the program, you must fill out the application, which is due on Friday, Nov. 1 by 11:59 pm. This program includes registering for two of three of the program’s courses, which include this course OR A City of Homes: Housing Issues in Philadelphia (ENGL B260) OR Philadelphia Music City (MUSI 005C). Those not participating in the Philly program do not need to complete the application and can simply pre-register for the class

PEAC H211  DECOLONIAL THEORY: INDIGENEITY AND REVOLT  (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course is an introduction to “decoloniality,” a mode of critical theory that examines and attempts to systematically undermine the notion that ascendance to power of European modernity (including contemporary American culture) can be understood without a constitutive and ongoing relation to colonial domination. This includes domination on the basis of race, gender, religion, and a variety of other ways that modern systems of rationality, governance, normalcy, order, and accumulation have been constructed through practices of domination and subjugation. The course focuses specifically on the American context, including the interplay between the African continent and North and South America. Key writers from Afro-diasporic, Afro-Caribbean, and indigenous Latin American perspectives will be studied in depth. While introducing students to salient currents in decolonial thought, the course will also examine relations between decolonial and postcolonial thought, as well as between decolonial theory and recent work in feminist and query theory.

PEAC H214  ETHICS OF WORLDBUILDING: SCIENCE FICTION AND SOCIAL/POLITICAL THEORY  (1.0 Credit)

Jill Stauffer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course will use science fiction to situate contemporary problems of political life and political theory in new contexts. Our main aim will be to decenter some of our presuppositions about what form political writing, persuasion, and action ought to take. Readings include science fiction, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, political science, neuroscience, poetry, literature, gender studies, Indigenous studies, and Black studies. Assignments include analysis of texts, storytelling, worldbuilding thought experiments, political writing, and visual argument. Pre-requisite(s): PEAC 101 or 201 or consent of instructor Lottery Preference: PJHR concentrators, 7 spaces reserved for first years

PEAC H218  WORK AND JUSTICE: PERSONAL GROWTH, STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS, AND CHANGE  (0.5 Credit)

Emily Drummond, Janice Lion, John McKnight

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course provides students with focused opportunities to identify and develop their applied skills. It engages text, experience, and reflective processes to develop the methods, skills, and habits for translating theoretical inquiry and applied experiences for continuous growth, improvement and informed ethical action. Each student should grow in their understanding of themselves and their vocation, while also developing capacities to better contribute to broader organizations, communities, businesses, and movements. Pre-requisite(s): Students must participate in a summer internship through the College.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

PEAC H220  CASTE AND POWER  (1.0 Credit)

Prea Persaud Khanna

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course explores the existence and effects of caste as a manifestation of power through several vectors such as religion, gender, class, etc.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

PEAC H222  HUMAN RIGHTS: CULTURE, LANGUAGE, AND POWER  (1.0 Credit)

Zeynep Sertbulut

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course offers an overview of the human rights system, looking at its basic elements and studying how it works. At the heart of this course is the question of “culture” and its relation to human rights. We will focus on the tensions and translations between human rights and culture and between global ideas and practices and local ones. The goal of the course is developing an understanding of human rights in practice and theorizing the intersections between social fields thought of as global and local. Crosslisted: Anthropology; Peace, Justice and Human Rights Prerequisite(s): Intro to Anthropology OR Intro to PJHR

PEAC H243  DEBT, JUSTICE, AND SOVEREIGNTY  (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Global indebtedness has reached astronomical and obscene proportions, and vast numbers of human beings are effectively enslaved to debt. This course examines the history of debt politics and the role of credit and debt in struggles for justice and sovereignty, in both pre-capitalist and capitalist societies. Particular focus will be placed on contemporary debates in the theory of money, and on the ambiguous and fraught relations between money and credit. Special consideration will be given to arguments for debt resistance politics as a strategy of emancipation and democratization in the context of neoliberal ideology, extreme wealth inequality, and environmental destruction, since these forces are arguably both the effects and causes of power relations enabling some to maintain perpetual creditworthiness while most have their futures foreclosed by the requirement that they pay their debts. Crosslisted: PEAC,ECON Prerequisite(s): one PEAC course or consent of instructor

(Offered: Fall 2025)

PEAC H244  OUR AMERICAS: IMAGINING THE HEMISPHERE  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course focuses on theorists of culture and society across the Americas, as well as major genres of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, considering interventions from Caribbean, Latin American, and North American figures. Reading novels, memoir, travel writing and poetry, we’ll theorize the structures of hemispheric life: how did race and the color line, slavery and the plantation, settler colonialism, labor and migration, travel and transit, and war and imperialism create a shared hemispheric history? Crosslisted: PEAC,COML Pre-requisite(s): One course involving literary analysis.

PEAC H257  ANTIGONE’S ECHOES: ACTIVISM AND THE LAW FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO TODAY  (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Farmer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Where should the law come from, the individual or the state? How can you protest an unjust system, and how can an ancient story help you do it? Who owns a “Classic”? These are just a few questions that Sophocles’ Antigone has raised for philosophers and playwrights from the Enlightenment to today. We'll read several versions of the Antigone myth and explore this character’s enduring relevance to theories of gender, performance, world literature, and politics. Crosslisted: COML,PEAC.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

PEAC H265  CRITICAL STUDY OF DATA AND ALGORITHMS  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This class focuses on the social impact of data and algorithms. Students will be introduced to 1) what are data and algorithms, 2) how data and algorithms intersect with problems of peace, justice, and human rights, especially in terms of social inequality, 3) how to critically assess and challenge data and algorithms, and 4) the role of individual and collective action in responding to relevant problems. No prior experience with programming, data, or algorithms required. Crosslisted: CMSC, PEAC Lottery Preference: PJHR concentrators

PEAC H281  FEMINIST POLITICAL ECONOMY  (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is an introduction to current debates in radical feminism. Beginning with the psychanalytical, Marxist, and Black Radical feminists of the 1960’s and 70’s, the course outlines contemporary radical feminist positions on race, gender, consumption, domesticity, care, labor, ecology, and the prospects of collective life within and beyond capitalist planetary endgame. Crosslisted: POLS. Pre-requisite(s): PEAC 101 or 201 or any PHIL or POLS class, or consent of instructor. Lottery Preference: PJHR and GenSex students first

(Offered: Fall 2025)

PEAC H295  QUAKERS, WAR, AND SLAVERY, 1646-1877  (1.0 Credit)

David Harrington Watt

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

In the 1640s and 50s, many Quakers believed that Christians should fight in wars; none of them (as far as we know) believed that Christians ought not own slaves. By 1723, most Quakers had renounced war; a good many of them had begun to assert that owning slaves was contrary to the will of God. Students in this course will try to determine how—and also why—Quakers changed their minds about war and slavery. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs; Peace, Justice and Human Rights; Religion Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing

PEAC H298  IMPACT INVESTING  (1.0 Credit)

Shannon Mudd

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Impact investing is investing to generate both a financial return and a positive social benefit. It supports firms seeking to address social, environmental and /or governance problems (ESG) in a sustainable way often within market activity. The focus of this course is to not only gain an understanding of the theory and practice of impact investing across its many components, but also to gain practical experience by assessing a particular set of potential impact investments, making formal presentations of findings to an investment committee leading to a recommendation for investment to a partnering foundation. Crosslisted: Economics, Independent College Programs, PJHR Prerequisite(s): ECON 104 or 105 or 106

(Offered: Fall 2025)

PEAC H309  AGAINST DEATH: OPPOSING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE  (1.0 Credit)

Lindsay Reckson

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

Advanced inquiry into creative and critical responses to the death penalty in the United States from the 1830s to the 1970s. Our aim is to explore the relationship between art and social protest, and to examine how capital punishment has manifested U.S. histories of race, class, gender, religion, and sexuality. Readings in primary historical materials, literary and cultural analysis, and critical theory. Pre-requisite(s): Freshman writing, plus one 200-level ENG course; or freshman writing plus PEAC101 or PEAC201. Crosslisted: ENGL and PEAC

PEAC H316  WOMEN AND THE ARMED STRUGGLE IN LATIN AMERICA  (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

An examination of socialist armed struggles in 1970s, women’s rights and feminist movements in Latin America. A comparative study of literary texts, testimonials and documentary films addresses theoretical issues such as Marxism, global feminism, hegemony and feminisms produced in the periphery. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Gen/Sex, and PJHR Prerequisite(s): One 200-level, preferred 300- level course, or instructor consent

PEAC H319  HUMAN RIGHTS IN PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA–IN NATIONAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXT  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course considers human rights as moral aspirations and as interdependent experiences created through civil law, drawing on student internships with social sector organizations in Philadelphia and throughout the United States, to interrogate the relationship between social issues and policy structures. Prerequisite(s): An internship through the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship. Exceptions may be made for students involved in other forms of sustained community engagement and/or activism.

PEAC H325  LAW: SETTLER AND INDIGENOUS  (1.0 Credit)

Jill Stauffer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Explores legal theories underpinning legal systems in settler colonial states. Studies settler legal forms and Indigenous legal forms alongside each other, and thinks about what gives law power, how that power stays in place, and what law is supposed to be and do for those who are guided by it. Readings include classics of settler/western legal theory and various Indigenous traditions. Assignments include papers, presentations, research, storytelling, and moot courts in multiple traditions. Pre-requisite(s): PEAC 101 or 201 or consent of instructor Lottery Preference: PJHR Concentrators

(Offered: Spring 2026)

PEAC H327  UNIVERSITY CITY: RACE, POWER AND POLITICS IN PHILADELPHIA  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

For over twenty years, the largest private employer in Philadelphia has been the University of Pennsylvania and its hospital system. In fact, three of the top five largest employers are universities and their affiliated medical centers; Thomas Jefferson University and Temple University also make the cut. Including these institutions, there are fifty-five colleges and universities of varying size, shape, and public/private status in Philadelphia. How did it come to be that universities have taken on such a large political and economic role in not just Philadelphia, but many American cities that otherwise share little in common? This class aims to trace the history of higher education and its ongoing impact on the geography, economy, and culture of greater Philadelphia and U.S. urban space broadly. Practically, this means an attention to the urban landscape; social, cultural, and political movements that emerge from these institutions; and how non-profit institutions relate to government at every level. These wide aims require an interdisciplinary approach drawing on work in critical university studies, cultural studies, political and economic theory, history, urban studies, and critical theory.This class will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program Prerequisites: Priority in registration will be given to students participating in the Tri-Co Philly Program. Remaining seats are available to other Tri-Co students, by lottery, if demand exceeds remaining spaces in the course. If you are interested in the program, you must fill out the application, which is due on Friday, November 3 by 11:59 pm (https://www.haverford.edu/philly-program). The program includes registering for two of three program’s three courses: this course and Literature in and of Philadelphia, 1682-1865 (ENGL B307) OR History & Politics of Punishment (20E). Those not participating in the Philly program do not need to complete the application and can simply pre-register for the class. Enrollment limit 18

PEAC H329  AFRO-ASIAN SOLIDARITIES  (1.0 Credit)

Prea Persaud Khanna

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This interdisciplinary course analyzes the relationship between Black and Asian communities in the Americas, highlighting moments of solidarity and unity and areas of divergence and conflict. Moving from slavery to indentureship to U.S. immigration, particularly post 1960s, students will examine the rhetoric of the yellow peril, the myth of the model minority, the rise of Black Power movements, orientalist stereotypes, and anti-blackness within the Asian (inclusive of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean) community. Pre-requisite(s): PEAC 101 or 201 or consent of instructor Lottery Preference: PJHR, AFST, and FGSTC students

(Offered: Spring 2026)

PEAC H331  CARCERAL/ABOLITION TECHNOLOGIES  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This seminar explores how technologies have been deployed to expand the carceral web of the prison-industrial complex, and the simultaneous resistances by abolitionist movements to create alternative futures and spaces both historically and presently. With an expansive understanding of technology, this class interrogates the construction of race, prisons, policing, and today’s AI systems in the US as methods of classification, containment, and control. Abolitionist, black feminist, and critical perspectives will be integrated into the discussion. Pre-requisite(s): Introductory or intermediate course in PJHR or consent of instructor Lottery Preference: PJHR Concentrators, then Computer Science students.

PEAC H332  INEVITABILITY, & OTHER MYTHS OF TECHNOLOGY  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This discussion seminar explores technologies from a cultural, sociological, and always critical perspective. Drawing on literature from an interdisciplinary set of fields including science and technology studies, media, cultural, and infrastructure studies, we will explore how relationships and understandings of technology are built throughout society. Through this social constructivist view, students will be exposed to the politics of technology while also building awareness of how these politics have and can be challenged.

PEAC H334  POLITICS OF VIOLENCE  (1.0 Credit)

Anita Isaacs

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This semester the seminar will focus on the causes and manifestations of structural and political violence in the Americas. Topics include the rise of white supremacy in the United States, and escalating political repression, gang violence and organized crime in Mexico and Central America. Cross-listed: Political Science/Peace, Justice and Human Rights

PEAC H335  REMEMBER THE FUTURE: COSMOLOGY AS POLITICS  (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

A study of the relations between political possibility and visions of ultimate reality, this course introduces students to a range of visions for order and change both within and beyond the West, past and present. Special attention is given to conceptions of "the end of the world" in relation to the ongoing ecological crisis and its political causes and consequences.

PEAC H336  HUMAN RIGHTS IN HISTORY: THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This class will trace the historical evolution of the concept of rights in early modern Europe. We will explore the origins of notions of rights and consider whether rights were invented, as some historians claim—and if so, when. We will analyze how ideas about rights intersected with the histories of constitutionalism, colonialism, revolution, and liberalism. Additionally, we will examine competing theories of rights to understand which rights historical actors claimed, and whose rights they were. Crosslisted: HIST, PEAC. Pre-requisite(s): One prior course in history.

PEAC H337  TECHNICAL CITIZENSHIP: INCARCERATION, REDEMPTION, ABOLITION  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Co-developed with members of Right2Redemption currently incarcerated in SCI Phoenix, this seminar explores how technologies have been deployed to expand the the prison-industrial complex, restricted the agency of community members from having their voices heard in political decision-making, and what can be done about this. Students must undergo clearance checks at SCI Phoenix in order to gain access to participate in the workshops, and visits may require time outside of class (approx. 4-6h extra month). Lottery Preference: PJHR, Political Science, Sociology

PEAC H395  CAPSTONE IN PEACE, JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS  (1.0 Credit)

Jill Stauffer

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This capstone course consolidates student experience of a program that integrates scholarship, theory, library and field research, and policy perspectives. It incorporates research assignments, collaboration, a conference presentation and a dossier on student work in the concentration. For PJHR senior concentrators.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Political Science Courses

POLS H151  INTERNATIONAL POLITICS  (1.0 Credit)

Barak Mendelsohn

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course offers an introduction to the study of international politics. It considers examples from history and addresses contemporary issues, while introducing and evaluating the political theories that have been used by scholars to explain those events. The principal goal of the course is to develop a general set of analytical approaches that can be used to gain insight into the nature of world politics – past, present and future.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

POLS H235  AFRICAN POLITICS  (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science,Social Justice
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World,

Analysis of political change in Africa from the colonial period to contemporary politics. Selected case studies will be used to address central themes including democracy, human rights, gender, interstate relations, economic development, and globalization. Prerequisite(s): one course in political science or consent of the instructor.

(Offered: Spring 2026)

POLS H241  IMMIGRATION POLITICS AND POLICY  (1.0 Credit)

Anita Isaacs

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Examines the causes and rights of forced migrants and refugees along with the responses and responsibilities of the international community. Focus on Mexico and Central America. Prerequisite(s): One political science course or instructor consent

(Offered: Fall 2025)

POLS H242  WOMEN IN WAR AND PEACE  (1.0 Credit)

Susanna Wing

Division: Social Science

Analysis of the complex issues surrounding women as political actors and the ways in which citizenship relates to men and women differently. Selected cases from the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia are studied as we discuss gender, domestic politics, and international relations from a global perspective. Prerequisite(s): one course in POLS or instructor consent

POLS H281  FEMINIST POLITICAL ECONOMY  (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Ramey

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is an introduction to current debates in radical feminism. Beginning with the psychanalytical, Marxist, and Black Radical feminists of the 1960’s and 70’s, the course outlines contemporary radical feminist positions on race, gender, consumption, domesticity, care, labor, ecology, and the prospects of collective life within and beyond capitalist planetary endgame. Crosslisted: POLS. Pre-requisite(s): PEAC 101 or 201 or any PHIL or POLS class, or consent of instructor. Lottery Preference: PJHR and GenSex students first

(Offered: Fall 2025)

POLS H301  DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND TRANSNATIONAL INJUSTICES  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Justice; Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

What are the worldwide obstacles to peace and justice? How can we surmount them? This course examines theories of some of the leading obstacles to peace and justice worldwide, and of what global citizens can do about them. The three obstacles we consider are colonialism and its legacies, whether we live in a global racial order, and whether the global economic order harms the poor and does them a kind of violence. The two solutions we will consider are the project of economic and social development, and the practice of human rights. The course aims, first, to give students some of the knowledge they will need to address these problems and be effective global citizens. Second, to understand some of the major forces that shape the present world order. Third and finally, to hone the skills in analysis, theory-building, and arguing that are highly valued in legal and political advocacy, in public life and the professions, and in graduate school. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Political Science

POLS H334  POLITICS OF VIOLENCE  (1.0 Credit)

Anita Isaacs

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This semester the seminar will focus on the causes and manifestations of structural and political violence in the Americas. Topics include the rise of white supremacy in the United States, and escalating political repression, gang violence and organized crime in Mexico and Central America. Cross-listed: Political Science/Peace, Justice and Human Rights

Religion Courses

RELG H230  RELIGION AND BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE  (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will examine the background for and the key events, figures, philosophies, tactics, and consequences of the modern black freedom struggle in United States. The period from 1955-1965 will receive special attention, but the roots of the freedom struggle and the effect on recent American political, social, and cultural history will also be considered.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

RELG H268  ANARCHISM: RELIGION, ETHICS, POLITICAL OBLIGATION  (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Anarchism emerged in the nineteenth century as an important transnational sociopolitical philosophy and religious movement. Course participants will analyze anarchism as a political philosophy and as a social movement, from the nineteenth century labor movement to the ongoing global justice movement.

RELG H295  QUAKERS, WAR, AND SLAVERY, 1646-1877  (1.0 Credit)

David Harrington Watt

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

In the 1640s and 50s, many Quakers believed that Christians should fight in wars; none of them (as far as we know) believed that Christians ought not own slaves. By 1723, most Quakers had renounced war; a good many of them had begun to assert that owning slaves was contrary to the will of God. Students in this course will try to determine how—and also why—Quakers changed their minds about war and slavery. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs; Peace, Justice and Human Rights; Religion Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing

RELG H322  RADICAL PACIFISM  (1.0 Credit)

Terrance Wiley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This seminar explores the development of pacifism or the philosophy of nonviolence, particularly yet not exclusively in the American context, from the middle nineteenth century to the latter part of the twentieth century. Students will consider different articulations of pacifism and nonviolent direct action and the social-historical context in which modern pacifism emerged, focusing on movements for racial justice, gender liberation, economic justice, and against nationalism.

Russian Courses

RUSS B237  CRIME OR PUNISHMENT: RUSSIAN NARRATIVES OF INCARCERATION  (1.0 Credit)

Jose Vergara

This course explores Russian narratives of incarceration, punishment, and captivity from the 17th century to the present day and considers topics such as social justice, violence and its artistic representations, totalitarianism, witness-bearing, and the possibility of transcendence in suffering. Taught in English. No knowledge of Russian language/culture necessary. Open to all.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Sociology Courses

SOCL B350  MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE  (1.0 Credit)

David Sorge

Throughout human history, powerless groups of people have organized social movements to improve their lives and their societies. Powerful groups and institutions have resisted these efforts in order to maintain their own privilege. Some periods of history have been more likely than others to spawn protest movements. What factors seem most likely to lead to social movements? What determines their success/failure? We will examine 20th and 21st-century social movements to answer these questions. Prerequisite: At least one prior social science course or permission of the instructor.

(Offered: Fall 2025)

Spanish Courses

SPAN H316  WOMEN AND THE ARMED STRUGGLE IN LATIN AMERICA  (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

An examination of socialist armed struggles in 1970s, women’s rights and feminist movements in Latin America. A comparative study of literary texts, testimonials and documentary films addresses theoretical issues such as Marxism, global feminism, hegemony and feminisms produced in the periphery. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Gen/Sex, and PJHR Prerequisite(s): One 200-level, preferred 300- level course, or instructor consent

SPAN H322  POLITICS OF MEMORY IN LATIN AMERICA  (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An exploration of the dynamics of memory, narration, censorship and oblivion after a period of state violence either under a dictatorship or an official democracy. This course analyses and compares literary genres (testimonies, diaries, poetry and fiction), visual archives, documentary films, practices and projects of memory (Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Museo de la Memoria in Chile, Museo Casa de la Memoria Indómita in Mexico, “sitios de memoria” and digital resources). Students will be able to compare debates, outcomes and current controversies of production of memory in Chile after the coup and dictatorship of Pinochet, and in Mexico after the repression of the student movement of ‘68 and the guerrilla movement. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Comparative Literature, PJHR

Visual Studies Courses

VIST H239  VISIONS OF JUSTICE: INTERSECTIONALITY AND LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ASIAN CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

Emily Hong

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course aims to deepen understandings of Asian struggles for justice and representation through independent films by Asian (including diaspora) directors. We will analyze films that offer a window into legal and social movement struggles for gender justice, self-determination, and environmental justice. Crosslisted: Visual Studies; Anthropology; East Asian Languages & Cultures; Peace, Justice and Human Rights

(Offered: Spring 2026)

Writing Program Courses

WRPR H112  GLOBAL SOLIDARITY AND LOCAL ACTIONS: INTERDEPENDENCE, SOCIAL CHANGE, AND HAVERFORD  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: First Year Writing

This course embraces global interdependence while considering how individual identities relate to appropriate local civic actions. Participants review ideas and methods relevant for co-creating more just, inclusive, sustainable communities, advancing inquiry in dialogue with community-based partners of Haverford College.